The Shiite-backed United Iraqi Alliance has won some 58 percent of the vote in Thursday's general elections in the province of Baghdad, Adel Lamy, the head of the electoral commission, said, citing the first partial results.

With nearly 90 percent of ballots counted, the Alliance won 1,403,901 votes in Baghdad, he told a televised news conference on Monday.

The Sunni-backed National Concord Front won 451,782 votes (18.6 percent).

And the list led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite, came in third with 327,174 votes (13.5 percent), he added.

Baghdad, the most populous of Iraq's 18 provinces, will send 59 members to parliament out of a total contingent of 275.

Other regions

Results from southern Basra province, also mixed but predominantly Shia, saw the clergy-backed alliance significantly ahead, winning 612,206 votes with 98% of ballot boxes counted. Allawi's group was in second place with 87,134 votes, while the Iraqi Accordance Front trailed with 36,997.

Kurdish parties were overwhelmingly ahead in their three northern provinces.
In Dahuk, results from 93% of ballot boxes showed the Kurdistan Coalition List, an alliance consisting of the two main Kurdish parties, received 344,717 votes representing 89% of votes counted. The Kurdistan Islamic Union followed with 28,401 ballots, while the Rafidian party, which represents Assyrian Christians, trailed with 4696.

Allawi's group received 2327 votes.

In Arbil, results from 76% of ballot boxes showed the Kurdish alliance winning 570,098 votes, or 95%. The Kurdistan Islamic Union won 19,612, or 3.24%, while Allawi's ticket had 2420.

In Sulaimaniya, results from 98% of ballot boxes showed the Kurdish alliance ahead with 671,814 votes, followed by the Kurdistan Islamic Union with 83,208 - and trailed by Allawi's National List with 1806.

The commission has said it does not expect to release the final election results before the start of next year.

PHOTO CAPTION

US soldiers blindfold a handcuffed Iraqi man alongside his parents during a night raid targeting three members, two brothers and their father. (AFP)